“If you would attain this love unto Jesus christ, whom you have never seen, you must get a thorough persuasion that there is such a person as Jesus Christ, and that He is such a person indeed as the Scriptures have revealed Him to be. The reason why heathens and infidels are without love to Christ is because they have never heard of Him; and the reason many nominal Christians that have heard of Christ are without love to Him is because they are not really persuaded that there is, or ever was, such a person Jesus Christ in the world. If you would attain this love, you must give a firm assent to this truth (which is the greatest of all, the very pillar and foundation of the whole Christian religion), that Christ really is, and the history of Him is no cunningly devised fable.”